In general it may be said that during Simeon’s reign and that of his immediate successors the affairs of Novgorod and Pskoff did not thrive very greatly. Meanwhile there was continual conflict along Baltic waters, east, north and south of Riga. Every place was in fear of being attacked on a sudden. Hostility from foreigners was the great, the chronic evil. In Moscow, peace reigned almost as completely as in Kalitá’s day. The same relations with the Horde that had been maintained during Uzbek’s reign were maintained during the rule of Chanibek, who became Khan in 1340. The first threats of danger came from the West, which was at this time an enemy far more dangerous to Moscow than were the Mongols.
When Olgerd took Vilna in 1345, and declared himself lord of Lithuania, certain brothers of his sought an asylum in Moscow. Simeon had now to reckon on meeting Olgerd, whose attack on Majaisk was still fresh in his memory, as well as his raid on Novgorod, and his insolent deeds in Pskoff, which were followed by plundering Pskoff regions. Roused to action by Olgerd’s fleeing brothers, Simeon was ready for conflict. Olgerd, knowing this, planned to checkmate him. He sent a great embassy to Chanibek with rich presents. At the head of this embassy went his own brother, Koriat, accompanied by a number of princes. He asked for an alliance against their common enemies, chief of whom, as he stated, was the Grand Prince of Moscow.
Simeon learned of this move, and sent envoys immediately to Chanibek. Among them were Russianized Mongol murzas, then serving the Moscow prince.
By Lithuania they understood at the Horde, from Batu’s day, something quite different and independent of that Russia subjected by Mongols. In Gedimin’s time, Lithuania was not only independent, but dangerous, and dreaded by Uzbek. Hence the imploring and lowly attitude of Lithuania pleased the Khan greatly, and the embassy was received with distinction. But when Simeon’s envoys came, the position changed quickly. They explained through the Russianized murzas that Olgerd, by his attacks and [[339]]incursions, was devastating the Khan’s dominions, and leading out prisoners in multitudes. “If thou permit this,” said they, “Olgerd will take us all captive, and make thy dominions a desert.”
Chanibek was “as angry as fire.” He seized the Lithuanians and sent them to Moscow. With them went, as special envoy, Tatuti, to deliver to the Grand Prince Koriat, Olgerd’s brother, and all who were with him. Olgerd grew mild now, the more so since he had suffered a crushing defeat from the Germans. Those iron-clad warriors had broken into Lithuania, taken Troki, and ravaged the country around it. Olgerd had such a battle with them as he had never known previously. Fourteen thousand Lithuanians fell. It was no time to quarrel with Moscow, hence he sent an embassy to Simeon with many gifts and a humble prayer for peace, the life of his brother, and the freedom of that brother’s attendants.
Simeon, who had recourse to war only when war was unavoidable, received Olgerd’s envoys with favor, concluded peace with them, and freed Koriat with his embassy.
Soon after this, Olgerd again became related to Simeon, whose first wife was a daughter of Gedimin. Simeon in 1347 married Maria, the daughter of Alexander, son of Michael, the Tver prince, who, with his father, was put to death by the Mongols. Olgerd asked now for the hand of Julianna, Maria’s sister. Simeon, being the guardian of his sister-in-law, was troubled about Olgerd’s Christianity. He had been baptized before taking Maria of Vitebsk, his first wife, and had declared at Pskoff that he was a Christian, but after Maria’s death he had persecuted Christians, in order to hold his heathen subjects more firmly, and three Orthodox Christians had been martyred in Vilna. But after consulting the metropolitan, Simeon gave Julianna in marriage to Olgerd.
This marriage was memorable, for by this Julianna Olgerd had his son Yagello, the first of the Yagello dynasty, the man who gave Lithuania to Latinism and to Poland.
The house of Gedimin strengthened its relations with the house of Rurik by another marriage, that of Lyubart, Olgerd’s brother. After the death of his first wife, the great-granddaughter of Daniel of Galitch, Lyubart asked in marriage Simeon’s niece, a daughter of Constantine, the Pskoff prince. [[340]]
But Olgerd, though doubly a brother-in-law of the Moscow prince, became more intimate with his wife’s brothers, Michael and Vsevolod, sons of Alexander the martyr. Soon after this, Michael became the most prominent of all the Tver princes, and threatened Moscow, through Olgerd, with attacks, which Olgerd, in the guise of assistance to the Tver prince, never ceased to make while it was humanly possible to do so.